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Are there better ways to address community challenges than expending funds on international service-learning?

In attempting to wed learning and service, are we are exploiting the “other” for new, or recycled, aims?

As these questions attest, of all types of service-learning, international service-learning (ISL) most starkly illuminates the tensions between the liberatory and oppressive potentials of practice.

This book explores the ramifications of realizing a new age of service-learning that pushes beyond single episodic course-based projects to rebalance student learning and community outcome priorities, and provides insight into what it looks like in its execution.

In describing eleven international programs designed to achieve reciprocal, sustained relationships in which learning is co-created, the contributors reveal their struggles to change the balance of power relationships and move to a more transformative practice. Common themes are the developmental nature of this work; the recognition that it takes multiple attempts, often over years, for an individual or an institution to get this work even nearly right; that resolving the challenges of unequal resources, power, and privilege can never be completely erased; and that attention has to be given to the micro-level details.

What emerge are seven guiding principles that define the nature of partnerships in liberatory practice, and that apply to all forms of service learning. They must be: strategic--linked to the mission and expertise of the institution; long-term; multifaceted--allowing both partners to play a multiplicity of roles; developmental in building capacities; contextualized in historic and cultural understanding; fully reciprocal; and create the potential for community-driven change.

In addressing the problematic nature of ISL, and of service-learning in general, this book interrogates whether its experiences create the necessary conditions for the formation of individual values, convictions, and action; and whether their pivotal teaching and learning moments are indeed replicable and transferable across individual, institutional and even cultural contexts. Its conclusions and insights will be of intense interest to administrators and practitioners alike.

The Challenge Built to Last, the defining management study of the nineties, showed how great companies triumph over time and how long-term sustained performance can be engineered into the DNA of an enterprise from the verybeginning.

But what about the company that is not born with great DNA? How can good companies, mediocre companies, even bad companies achieve enduring greatness?

The Study For years, this question preyed on the mind of Jim Collins. Are there companies that defy gravity and convert long-term mediocrity or worse into long-term superiority? And if so, what are the universal distinguishing characteristics that cause a company to go from good to great?

The Standards Using tough benchmarks, Collins and his research team identified a set of elite companies that made the leap to great results and sustained those results for at least fifteen years. How great? After the leap, the good-to-great companies generated cumulative stock returns that beat the general stock market by an average of seven times in fifteen years, better than twice the results delivered by a composite index of the world's greatest companies, including Coca-Cola, Intel, General Electric, and Merck.

The Comparisons The research team contrasted the good-to-great companies with a carefully selected set of comparison companies that failed to make the leap from good to great. What was different? Why did one set of companies become truly great performers while the other set remained only good?

Over five years, the team analyzed the histories of all twenty-eight companies in the study. After sifting through mountains of data and thousands of pages of interviews, Collins and his crew discovered the key determinants of greatness -- why some companies make the leap and others don't.

The Findings The findings of the Good to Great study will surprise many readers and shed light on virtually every area of management strategy and practice. The findings include:

Level 5 Leaders: The research team was shocked to discover the type of leadership required to achieve greatness. The Hedgehog Concept (Simplicity within the Three Circles): To go from good to great requires transcending the curse of competence. A Culture of Discipline: When you combine a culture of discipline with an ethic of entrepreneurship, you get the magical alchemy of great results. Technology Accelerators: Good-to-great companies think differently about the role of technology. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop: Those who launch radical change programs and wrenching restructurings will almost certainly fail to make the leap.

“Some of the key concepts discerned in the study,” comments Jim Collins, "fly in the face of our modern business culture and will, quite frankly, upset some people.”

Why is it so hard to make lasting changes in our companies, in our communities, and in our own lives?

The primary obstacle is a conflict that’s built into our brains, say Chip and Dan Heath, authors of the critically acclaimed bestseller Made to Stick. Psychologists have discovered that our minds are ruled by two different systems—the rational mind and the emotional mind—that compete for control. The rational mind wants a great beach body; the emotional mind wants that Oreo cookie. The rational mind wants to change something at work; the emotional mind loves the comfort of the existing routine. This tension can doom a change effort—but if it is overcome, change can come quickly.

In Switch, the Heaths show how everyday people—employees and managers, parents and nurses—have united both minds and, as a result, achieved dramatic results:

● The lowly medical interns who managed to defeat an entrenched, decades-old medical practice that was endangering patients.

● The home-organizing guru who developed a simple technique for overcoming the dread of housekeeping.

● The manager who transformed a lackadaisical customer-support team into service zealots by removing a standard tool of customer service.

In a compelling, story-driven narrative, the Heaths bring together decades of counterintuitive research in psychology, sociology, and other fields to shed new light on how we can effect transformative change.

Switch shows that successful changes follow a pattern, a pattern you can use to make the changes that matter to you, whether your interest is in changing the world or changing your waistline.

The lack of personal accountability is a problem that has resulted in an epidemic of blame, victim thinking, complaining, and procrastination. No organization—or individual—can successfully compete in the marketplace, achieve goals and objectives, provide outstanding service, engage in exceptional teamwork, or develop people without personal accountability.

John G. Miller believes that the troubles that plague organizations cannot be solved by pointing fingers and blaming others. Rather, the real solutions are found when each of us recognizes the power of personal accountability. In QBQ! The Question Behind the Question®, Miller explains how negative, ill-focused questions like “Why do we have to go through all this change?” and “Who dropped the ball?” represent a lack of personal accountability. Conversely, when we ask better questions—QBQs—such as “What can I do to contribute?” or “How can I help solve the problem?” our lives and our organizations are transformed.

THE QBQ! PROMISE

This remarkable and timely book provides a practical method for putting personal accountability into daily actions, with astonishing results: problems are solved, internal barriers come down, service improves, teams thrive, and people adapt to change more quickly. QBQ! is an invaluable resource for anyone seeking to learn, grow, and change. Using this tool, each of us can add tremendous worth to our organizations and to our lives by eliminating blame, victim-thinking, and procrastination.

QBQ! was written more than a decade ago and has helped countless readers practice personal accountability at work and at home. This version features a new foreword, revisions and new material throughout, and a section of FAQs that the author has received over the years.

The global phenomenon that has sold 3.6 million copies, is published in a record-breaking 44 languages and is a bestseller across five continents—now updated and expanded with new content

In this perennial bestseller, embraced by organizations and industries worldwide, globally preeminent management thinkers W. Chan Kim and Renée Mauborgne challenge everything you thought you knew about the requirements for strategic success. Recognized as one of the most iconic and impactful strategy books ever written, Blue Ocean Strategy, now updated with fresh content from the authors, argues that cutthroat competition results in nothing but a bloody red ocean of rivals fighting over a shrinking profit pool. Based on a study of 150 strategic moves (spanning more than 100 years across 30 industries), the authors argue that lasting success comes not from battling competitors but from creating “blue oceans”—untapped new market spaces ripe for growth.

Blue Ocean Strategy presents a systematic approach to making the competition irrelevant and outlines principles and tools any organization can use to create and capture their own blue oceans. This expanded edition includes:A new preface by the authors: Help! My Ocean Is Turning RedUpdates on all cases and examples in the book, bringing their stories up to the present timeTwo new chapters and an expanded third one — Alignment, Renewal, and Red Ocean Traps — that address the most pressing questions readers have asked over the past 10 years

A landmark work that upends traditional thinking about strategy, this bestselling book charts a bold new path to winning the future. Consider this your guide to creating uncontested market space—and making the competition irrelevant.

To learn more about the power of blue ocean strategy, visit blueoceanstrategy.com. There you’ll find all the resources you need—from ideas in practice and cases from government and private industry, to teaching materials, mobile apps, real-time updates, and tips and tools to help you make your blue ocean journey a success.

“Sprint offers a transformative formula for testing ideas that works whether you’re at a startup or a large organization. Within five days, you’ll move from idea to prototype to decision, saving you and your team countless hours and countless dollars. A must read for entrepreneurs of all stripes.” —Eric Ries, author of The Lean Startup

From three partners at Google Ventures, a unique five-day process for solving tough problems, proven at more than a hundred companies.

Entrepreneurs and leaders face big questions every day: What’s the most important place to focus your effort, and how do you start? What will your idea look like in real life? How many meetings and discussions does it take before you can be sure you have the right solution?

Now there’s a surefire way to answer these important questions: the sprint. Designer Jake Knapp created the five-day process at Google, where sprints were used on everything from Google Search to Google X. He joined Braden Kowitz and John Zeratsky at Google Ventures, and together they have completed more than a hundred sprints with companies in mobile, e-commerce, healthcare, finance, and more.

A practical guide to answering critical business questions, Sprint is a book for teams of any size, from small startups to Fortune 100s, from teachers to nonprofits. It’s for anyone with a big opportunity, problem, or idea who needs to get answers today.

Douglas uncovers the underlying reasons for lack of consistency and helps traders overcome the ingrained mental habits that cost them money. He takes on the myths of the market and exposes them one by one teaching traders to look beyond random outcomes, to understand the true realities of risk, and to be comfortable with the "probabilities" of market movement that governs all market speculation.

Often downplayed in the excitement of starting up a new business venture is one of the most important decisions entrepreneurs will face: should they go it alone, or bring in cofounders, hires, and investors to help build the business? More than just financial rewards are at stake. Friendships and relationships can suffer. Bad decisions at the inception of a promising venture lay the foundations for its eventual ruin. The Founder's Dilemmas is the first book to examine the early decisions by entrepreneurs that can make or break a startup and its team.

Drawing on a decade of research, Noam Wasserman reveals the common pitfalls founders face and how to avoid them. He looks at whether it is a good idea to cofound with friends or relatives, how and when to split the equity within the founding team, and how to recognize when a successful founder-CEO should exit or be fired. Wasserman explains how to anticipate, avoid, or recover from disastrous mistakes that can splinter a founding team, strip founders of control, and leave founders without a financial payoff for their hard work and innovative ideas. He highlights the need at each step to strike a careful balance between controlling the startup and attracting the best resources to grow it, and demonstrates why the easy short-term choice is often the most perilous in the long term.

The Founder's Dilemmas draws on the inside stories of founders like Evan Williams of Twitter and Tim Westergren of Pandora, while mining quantitative data on almost ten thousand founders.

People problems are the leading cause of failure in startups. This book offers solutions.

By the winner of the 1988 Nobel Prize in Economics, an essential and paradigm-altering framework for understanding economic development--for both rich and poor--in the twenty-first century.

Freedom, Sen argues, is both the end and most efficient means of sustaining economic life and the key to securing the general welfare of the world's entire population. Releasing the idea of individual freedom from association with any particular historical, intellectual, political, or religious tradition, Sen clearly demonstrates its current applicability and possibilities. In the new global economy, where, despite unprecedented increases in overall opulence, the contemporary world denies elementary freedoms to vast numbers--perhaps even the majority of people--he concludes, it is still possible to practically and optimistically restain a sense of social accountability. Development as Freedom is essential reading.

We live in an age of unparalleled opportunity for innovation. We’re building more products than ever before, but most of them fail—not because we can’t complete what we set out to build, but because we waste time, money, and effort building the wrong product.

What we need is a systematic process for quickly vetting product ideas and raising our odds of success. That’s the promise of Running Lean.

In this inspiring book, Ash Maurya takes you through an exacting strategy for achieving a "product/market fit" for your fledgling venture, based on his own experience in building a wide array of products from high-tech to no-tech. Throughout, he builds on the ideas and concepts of several innovative methodologies, including the Lean Startup, Customer Development, and bootstrapping.

Running Lean is an ideal tool for business managers, CEOs, small business owners, developers and programmers, and anyone who’s interested in starting a business project.

Find a problem worth solving, then define a solutionEngage your customers throughout the development cycleContinually test your product with smaller, faster iterationsBuild a feature, measure customer response, and verify/refute the ideaKnow when to "pivot" by changing your plan’s courseMaximize your efforts for speed, learning, and focusLearn the ideal time to raise your "big round" of fundingGet on track with The Lean SeriesPresented by Eric Ries—bestselling author of The Lean Startup: How Today’s Entrepreneurs Use Continuous Innovation to Create Radically Successful Businesses—The Lean Series gives you solid footing in a proven methodology that will help your business succeed.

With must-have updates, a new edition of the bestselling method that shows how anyone can turn their one simple idea into millions – without lifting a finger!

Stephen Key is an award-winning inventor who has licensed more than 20 product ideas. In 2011, he shared the secrets to his success in the bestselling book One Simple Idea. Since that time, many changes have occurred in the entrepreneurial world.

One Simple Idea, Revised and Expanded Edition has been revised and updated to reflect current trends and practices in the industry. In addition to teaching readers how to turn their ideas into marketable products that companies will want to license, Key expands upon his cutting-edge product development, sales, and negotiation strategies, making note of the new opportunities and technologies available to creative people today. The book also features real-life success stories from people who have used the author’s strategies.

We live in a highly litigious world. As you live your life you must keep your guard up. As you grow your wealth you must protect it. For those who don’t predators await, and their attorneys will use every trick in the toolbox to get at - whether large or small-your unprotected assets.

Start Your Own Corporation educates you on an action plan to protect your life’s gains. Corporate attorney and best selling author Garrett Sutton clearly explains the all too common risks of failing to protect yourself and the strategies for limiting your liability going forward. The information is timely, accessible and applicable to every citizen in every situation.

Garrett Sutton has spent the last thirty years protecting clients’ assets and implementing corporate structures to limit liability. This significant experience shines through in a very readable book on the why to’s and how to’s for achieving asset protection. Start Your Own Corporation teaches how to select between corporations and LLCs and how to use Nevada and Wyoming entities to your maximum advantage. This non-technical and easy to understand book also educates on the importance of following corporate formalities, using business tax deductions and building business credit.

Rich Dad Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki says, “Start Your Own Corporation is a must read for anyone with any assets to protect.”

Whether you plan to go it alone or build a team, this book takes you through all phases of setting up and running a thriving home-based car detailing business, from estimating start-up costs to opening your doors. This book includes profiles of professional detailers and business professionals who share valuable insight on owning a business. Learn all about equipping your business, exploring web-based and traditional marketing methods, establishing a solid sales system, and expanding your own home-based car detailing business. Look for useful charts and worksheets throughout the book, including: Vehicle Evaluation FormSales Forecasts and Cash Flow ProjectionsSample Estimate Worksheet Sample Bid and InvoiceClient Check-In Form

Whether you’re a startup founder trying to disrupt an industry or an intrapreneur trying to provoke change from within, your biggest challenge is creating a product people actually want. Lean Analytics steers you in the right direction.

This book shows you how to validate your initial idea, find the right customers, decide what to build, how to monetize your business, and how to spread the word. Packed with more than thirty case studies and insights from over a hundred business experts, Lean Analytics provides you with hard-won, real-world information no entrepreneur can afford to go without.

Understand Lean Startup, analytics fundamentals, and the data-driven mindsetLook at six sample business models and how they map to new ventures of all sizesFind the One Metric That Matters to youLearn how to draw a line in the sand, so you’ll know it’s time to move forwardApply Lean Analytics principles to large enterprises and established products

All too often business owners and real estate investors are asking this question. They have formed their protective entity – be it a corporation, LLC or LP – and don’t know what to do next.

“Run Your Own Corporation” provides the solution to this very common dilemma. Breaking down the requirements chronologically (ie the first day, first quarter, first year) the book sets forth all the tax and corporate and legal matters new business owners must comply with. Written by Rich Dad’s Advisor Garrett Sutton, Esq., who also authored the companion edition “Start Your Own Corporation”, the book clearly identifies what must be done to properly maintain and operate your corporation entity.

From the first day, when employer identification numbers must be obtained in order to open up a bank account, to the fifth year when trademark renewals must be filed, and all the requirements in between, “Run Your Own Corporation” is a unique resource that all business owners and investors must have.

Rich Dad/Poor Dad author Robert Kiyosaki states, “Run Your Own Corporation is the missing link for most entrepreneurs. They’ve set up their entity, but don’t know the next steps. Garrett Sutton’s book provides valuable information needed at the crucial start up phase of operations. It is highly recommended reading.”When “Start Your Own Corporation” is combined with “Run Your Own Corporation” readers have a two book set that offers the complete corporate picture.

From designing your food truck and identifying your market to establishing a business plan and determining the operational concerns of a mobile business, this comprehensive guide provides down-to-earth advice on every aspect of setting up and running a food truck business. Learn all about overcoming the hurdles facing the mobile food vendor, the legal aspects of food safety, menu planning, setting up your home-based headquarters, and navigating the catering industry. Whatever your plans, each chapter can help you experience the satisfaction of establishing and building your own home-based food truck business and reaching opening day! Look for useful charts and worksheets throughout the book, including: Preferred Vendor Checklist Start-Up Cost WorksheetsSample Operational Weekly Schedule 7878Outfitting your mobile kitchenAttracting customersNavigating operations concernsUnderstanding legal aspects and food safetyBuilding your menu

Napoleon Hill's Golden Rules: The Lost Writings consists of a series of magazine articles Napoleon Hill wrote between 1919 and1923 for Success Magazine, of which he eventually become an editor. Hill's obsession with achieving material success had led him from poverty stricken Appalachian Mountains with the desire to study successful people. These articles focus on Hill's philosophy of success, drawing on the thoughts and experience of a multitude of rags-to-riches tycoons, showing readers how these successful people achieved such status. Many of his writings such as the chapter on Law of Attraction, written in the March 1919 issue, have recently basis of several bestselling books. Readers will discover principles that will assure their success if studied and put into action. Chapters include: Lesson #1: Your Social and Physical Heredity--Hills Golden Rule (May 1920) Lesson #2: Auto Suggestion--Napoleon Hill's Magazine (July 1921) Lesson #3: Suggestion (Applied Salesmanship)--Napoleon Hill's Magazine (August 1921) Lesson #4: The Law of Retaliation--Hill's Golden Rule (March 1919) Lesson #5: The Power of Your Mind (Little Odd Visits with Your Editor)--Hill's Golden Rule (October 1919) Lesson #6: How to Build Self-Confidence--Napoleon Hill's Magazine (June 1921) Lesson #7: Environment and Habit--Hill's Golden Rule (April 1919) Lesson #8: How to Remember--Hill's Golden Rule (May-June 1919) Lesson #9: How Marc Antony Used Suggestion in Winning the Roman Mob--Hill's Golden Rule (July 1919) Lesson #10: Persuasion vs. Force--Hill's Golden Rule (September 1919) Lesson #11: The Law of Compensation--Napoleon Hill's Magazine (April 1921) Lesson #12: The Golden Rule as a Pass Key to All Achievement--Napoleon Hill's Magazine (June 1921)

How well does your organization respond to changing market conditions, customer needs, and emerging technologies when building software-based products? This practical guide presents Lean and Agile principles and patterns to help you move fast at scale—and demonstrates why and how to apply these methodologies throughout your organization, rather than with just one department or team.

Through case studies, you’ll learn how successful enterprises have rethought everything from governance and financial management to systems architecture and organizational culture in the pursuit of radically improved performance. Adopting Lean will take time and commitment, but it’s vital for harnessing the cultural and technical forces that are accelerating the rate of innovation.

Discover how Lean focuses on people and teamwork at every level, in contrast to traditional management practicesApproach problem-solving experimentally, by exploring solutions, testing assumptions, and getting feedback from real usersLead and manage large-scale programs in a way that empowers employees, increases the speed and quality of delivery, and lowers costsLearn how to implement ideas from the DevOps and Lean Startup movements even in complex, regulated environments

In "Make It Your Own Law Firm: The Ultimate Law Student's Guide to Owning, Managing, and Marketing Your Own Successful Law Firm" Spencer Aronfeld writes a personal and revealing account on how to start your own law firm. Whether you are in law school, recently graduated or a practicing attorney thinking of establishing your own law firm, this book provides a step-by-step road map. Aronfeld started his own law practice upon graduation from law school. He provides practical advice that will enable anyone with a deep passion to practice law to become the lawyer that they always wanted to be. Here is what lawyers are saying: "Whether you have ever considered starting your own firm or simply want to improve your practice at your existing firm (whether big or small), I urge you to purchase the book Make It Your Own Law Firm by Spencer Aronfeld, a trial attorney in Miami, Florida. I recommend you buy it not so much for the helpful advice he gives on how to develop your practice (and there’s plenty of that) but more for the writing. What Spencer does, which few non-fiction writers can do, is to move you emotionally. He tells stories and puts you in the middle of them with him and makes you feel what he did. It is a unique and valuable gift for a lawyer, because ultimately we are story-tellers and we are tasked not only to affect the jurors’ minds but also to touch their hearts. Spencer’s writing style demonstrates he is the consummate story-teller and his diction and cadence and style are worth emulating. So, buy the book. Yes, it has great practice tips. But buy it because you will see what great writing is about. Clear, direct, moving and effective. Keep writing Spencer." Frank Ramos, Esquire

“Students talk about Stewart D. Friedman, a management professor at the Wharton School, with a mixture of earnest admiration, gratitude and rock star adoration.” —New York Times

Now more than ever, your success as a leader isn't just about being a great businessperson. You've got to be a great person, performing well in all domains of your life—your work, your home, your community, and your private self.

That's a tall order.

The good news is that, contrary to conventional wisdom about "balance," you don't have to assume that these domains compete in a zero-sum game. Total Leadership is a game-changing blueprint for how to perform well as a leader not by trading off one domain for another, but by finding mutual value among all four. The author shows you how to achieve these "four-way wins" as a leader who can:· Be real: Act with authenticity by clarifying what's important· Be whole: Act with integrity by respecting the whole person· Be innovative: Act with creativity by experimenting to find new solutions

With engaging examples and clear instruction, Friedman provides more than thirty hands-on tools for using these proven principles to produce stronger business results, find clearer purpose in what you do, feel more connected to the people who matter most, and generate sustainable change.

Most leadership development books focus only on your professional skills, while books about personal growth concentrate on your needs beyond work. Total Leadership is different. It's a unique and long-awaited resource that shows how to win in all domains of life.

How can great companies do everything right - identify real customer needs, deliver excellent innovations, beat their competitors to market - and still fail?

The sad truth is that many companies fail because they focus too intensely on their own innovations, and then neglect the innovation ecosystems on which their success depends. In our increasingly interdependent world, winning requires more than just delivering on your own promises. It means ensuring that a host of partners -some visible, some hidden- deliver on their promises, too.

In The Wide Lens, innovation expert Ron Adner draws on over a decade of research and field testing to take you on far ranging journeys from Kenya to California, from transport to telecommunications, to reveal the hidden structure of success in a world of interdependence.

A riveting study that offers a new perspective on triumphs like Amazon's e-book strategy and Apple's path to market dominance; monumental failures like Michelin with run-flat tires and Pfizer with inhalable insulin; and still unresolved issues like electric cars and electronic health records, The Wide Lens offers a powerful new set of frameworks and tools that will multiply your odds of innovation success.

The Wide Lens will change the way you see, the way you think - and the way you win.

Embarking on a lean journey is similar to hitchhiking -- there are many roads on which to wander and no single one is right for all. This book reveals the most critical lessons learned over the authors' combined 30-plus years of exploring lean highways and shares stories based on real-world applications. The authors focus on areas where most lean efforts fail to illustrate steps to take to reenergize, accelerate and sustain a lean transformation. The book's ten chapters cover lean principles and thinking, lean leadership moves, the roadmap for lean transformation, common pitfalls of lean journeys, building an operating system, lean accounting, lean material management, lean in service organizations, and how individuals can apply lean to improve themselves. The book concludes with interviews of lean practitioners on the front lines of change at Chrysler, Ross Controls, DTE Energy. RSR Corporation, and Nemak.

When a crippling disease shattered his lifelong ambition, Dr. V (Venkataswamy) chose an impossible new dream: to cure the world of blindness. The tiny clinic he founded in India defied conventional business logic and is now the largest provider of eye care on the planet. At Aravind, patients choose whether to pay or not. Millions are treated for free, yet the organization remains stunningly self-reliant. Serving everyone from penniless farmers to the president, it delivers world-class outcomes at less than a hundredth of what similar services cost in advanced nations. Its model is emulated by organizations everywhere from Rwanda to San Francisco. Infinite Vision uncovers the radical principles behind Aravind’s baffling success. Charged with profound insights and stories, it draws readers to the heart of Dr. V’s selfless vision, proving how choices that seem quixotic can, when executed with compassion and integrity, yield incredible results—results that can light the eyes of millions.

In today's economy, maximizing the performance of every employee is critical to business survival and growth. Gen Y—sometimes called Millennials—provides an enticing opportunity for employers to increase their short-term profitability and create a long-term competitive advantage. Almost 80 million strong, Gen Y is the fastest growing segment in the US workforce—and now comprises the entire 18 to 32 demographic. Along with their ever-present cell phone and occasional backpack, Gen Y brings tremendous potential and timely skills to the workplace (just ask, they’ll tell you). However, Gen Y can be notoriously difficult to attract, retain, motivate, and develop. Gen Y's new approach to work makes them a growing challenge or strategic opportunity—depending entirely on how you choose to employ them.

In Y-Size Your Business, Jason Ryan Dorsey, The Gen Y Guy, presents a step-by-step methodology for best employing Gen Y without investing a lot of time or money. A member of Gen Y himself he delivers an insider's view of his generation as well as more than fifty cost-effective, ready-to-use strategies that deliver immediate measurable results. Dorsey collected these creative strategies from the frontlines of business during his work with executives, managers, and entrepreneurs in businesses large and small around the world. He shows you exactly how to attract the best Gen Y employees, quickly develop their workplace skills, and then unlock their performance, motivation, and loyalty.

Reveals creative ways to attract, retain, motivate, and develop Gen Y employees without paying them more money (or meeting their Mom) Includes a behind-the-scenes view of Gen Y from someone in Gen Y (including why they text message without vowels) Explains the primary workplace differences between the four generations and how to leverage their strengths Features funny, outrageous, and candid stories that expose the generation gap in the office (Is that a tattoo?) Helps you view the Gen Y employee life cycle and key business operations in a new way—one you can use to your business and career advantage

Companies that wisely choose to embrace Gen Y today will be well positioned to navigate the global economy tomorrow. Not only will these companies benefit from the talents and ambitions of Gen Y—they’ll also benefit from Gen Y's increasing economic influence as well as their massive social networks. Based on Dorsey's work with business leaders at companies around the world, as a keynote speaker, consultant, and generational expert, Y-Size Your Business presents precisely the solutions you need to make the most of an increasingly important generation that is ready to make an impact from their first day at work (and then blog about it!).

No matter how much repeat business you get from loyal customers, the lifeblood of your business is a constant flow of new accounts. Whether you’re a sales rep, sales manager, or a professional services executive, if you are expected to bring in new business, you need a proven formula for prospecting, developing, and closing deals. New Sales. Simplified. is the answer. You’ll learn how to: • Identify a strategic, finite, workable list of genuine prospects • Draft a compelling, customer-focused “sales story” • Perfect the proactive telephone call to get face-to-face with more prospects • Use email, voicemail, and social media to your advantage • Overcome—even prevent—every buyer’s anti-salesperson reflex • Build rapport, because people buy from people they like and trust • Prepare for and structure a winning sales call • Stop presenting and start dialoguing with buyers • Make time in your calendar for business development activities • And much more Packed with examples and anecdotes, New Sales. Simplified. balances a blunt (and often funny) look at what most salespeople and executives do wrong with an easy-to-follow plan for ramping up new business starting today.

Good Profit: How Creating Value for Others Built One of the World’s Most Successful Companies is a nonfiction book that outlines the management strategy of Charles G. Koch, the chief executive officer (CEO) of Koch Industries, Inc. It builds on his 2007 book, The Science of Success: How Market-Based Management Built the World’s Largest Private Company, by including guidance on how to apply his management strategies, and answers questions about Koch Industries’s success and failures…

PLEASE NOTE: This is key takeaways and analysis of the book and NOT the original book.

Amidst the desolate landscape of fallen great companies, Jim Collins began to wonder: How do the mighty fall? Can decline be detected early and avoided? How far can a company fall before the path toward doom becomes inevitable and unshakable? How can companies reverse course?

In How the Mighty Fall, Collins confronts these questions, offering leaders the well-founded hope that they can learn how to stave off decline and, if they find themselves falling, reverse their course. Collins' research project—more than four years in duration—uncovered five step-wise stages of decline:

Stage 1: Hubris Born of Success

Stage 2: Undisciplined Pursuit of More

Stage 3: Denial of Risk and Peril

Stage 4: Grasping for Salvation

Stage 5: Capitulation to Irrelevance or Death

By understanding these stages of decline, leaders can substantially reduce their chances of falling all the way to the bottom.

Great companies can stumble, badly, and recover.

Every institution, no matter how great, is vulnerable to decline. There is no law of nature that the most powerful will inevitably remain at the top. Anyone can fall and most eventually do. But, as Collins' research emphasizes, some companies do indeed recover—in some cases, coming back even stronger—even after having crashed into the depths of Stage 4.

Decline, it turns out, is largely self-inflicted, and the path to recovery lies largely within our own hands. We are not imprisoned by our circumstances, our history, or even our staggering defeats along the way. As long as we never get entirely knocked out of the game, hope always remains. The mighty can fall, but they can often rise again.

"Dave Anderson has hit another home run! Up Your Business! is an invaluable, highly readable guide that should be on the desk--and in the mind--of anyone demanding top-level performance from themselves and others." --James Strock, author, Reagan on Leadership and Theodore Roosevelt on Leadership

"Up Your Business! is a powerful blueprint for companies looking to take their business to the next level. It is one of the most powerful books on business and leadership I have ever read and will be a major component of Saga Communications' leadership training." --Warren Lada, Senior Vice President, Saga Communications, Inc.

"Once again, Dave Anderson puts it all together in a way that almost makes you think he's been looking over your shoulder all these years. Chapter two alone, 'Abolish Corporate Welfare: Create a Culture of Merit,' is worth the time it takes to read the entire book." --Mike Roscoe, founder and President, Horizon Communications

"Finally . . . a business book that gets to the heart of what matters and creates usable templates that could help any business thrive." --Roxanne Emmerich, author, Thank God It's Monday!

As a salesperson, your pipeline is the key to your success. No matter what changes, that remains the same. Top producers prospect—and they do it ALL THE TIME. “But how?” you ask, “In the age of the Internet, isn’t cold-calling dead?”

Now, in his new book, sales expert Mark Hunter shatters costly prospecting myths and eliminates confusion about what works today. Merging new strategies with proven practices, High-Profit Prospecting will help you:

Find better leads and qualify them quicklyTrade cold calling for informed callingTailor your timing and messageLeave a great voicemailCraft compelling emailsUse social media effectivelyLeverage referralsGet past gatekeepers and open new doorsSteer clear of prospecting pitfallsConnect with the C-SuiteAnd more

The Internet won’t fill your sales funnel—and you can’t rely on the marketing department for leads (not if you want to succeed). High-Profit Prospecting puts the power back where it belongs—in your hands. Follow its formula and start bringing in valuable new business.

Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life was immediately hailed as "not your average self-help book" and demanded attention and praise right out of the gate. It is now considered one of the icons of the personal development movement. Now, Larry Winget is back with his signature caustic, no-nonsense, hilarious style, which earned him the titles "Pitbull of Personal Development®" and "World's Only Irritational Speaker®." Winget's "get off your butt and go to work" approach to self-improvement boils success down to a simple formula: Everything in your life gets better when you get better. Get tangible advice from one of the world's most successful speakers and the author of five bestselling books and television personality. Learn the keys to turning your life, money and business around. Stop making excuses, stop blaming others and take responsibility for your life and your results

The brutal advice he offers has changed the lives of millions of people and increased sales for countless businesses. In this Second Edition of Shut Up, Stop Whining, and Get a Life, Winget takes the same principles and expands the lessons with brand new examples, stories, and added wisdom. It may sound ruthless, but your life is your own fault and if you shut up, stop whining, and take action you can create a better life.

We all have ideas—things we want to do or create—but only some of us will do what it takes to see those ideas come to pass. In Good Idea. Now What? readers will discover some of the essential values and principles that guide successful idea-makers, including the leveraging of mixed environments for creativity, working through resistance and setbacks, developing a practical plan for implementation that works, navigating collaborative opportunities, and communicating your idea to make it truly remarkable.

Whether you're just a creative type, or the leader of an organization, you must figure out a creative process and develop an infrastructure for implementing your ideas. Good Idea. Now What? offers systematic advice for moving your ideas to execution. It will show you:

The fundamental elements of a good idea Tangible pathways to follow after initial inspiration The importance of branding and its impact on ideas Practical advice for developing a loyal tribe of supporters who will take your idea to a whole new level

It's not enough to be inspired. Learn how to follow through on your ideas and discover how great an impact you can have!

Anyone can learn the ins and outs of eBay with this new book from Atlantic Publishing Company. They have spent a year putting together this exciting new book for all those who want to join the ranks of selling on eBay.

eBay has changed the way products and services are purchased all over the world. Daily over 1.5 million online customers and providers log on to bid and sell virtually anything that can be bought or purchased. In 2006, eBay sellers are estimated to post $22 billion in sales. There are businesses earning $1 million a year selling products on eBay today. It is estimated that more than half a million people make full-time incomes just with their eBay business. eBay also allows you to run a business that requires no advertising costs.

eBay is a level playing field--it doesn't matter how old you are, what nationality or income level, whether you own a business now or not, what your background is, or where you are located. Start making money on eBay today!

The book starts with a complete overview of how eBay works. Then you are guided through the whole process of creating the auction and auction strategies, photography, writing copy, text and formatting, managing auctions, shipping, collecting payments, registering, About Me page, sources for merchandise, multiple sales, programming tricks, PayPal, accounting, creating marketing, merchandising, managing e-mail lists, advertising plans, taxes and sales tax, best time to list items and for how long, sniping programs, international customers, opening a storefront, electronic commerce, buy-it now pricing, keywords, Google marketing, and eBay secrets; everything you will ever need to get started making money on eBay!

Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company president's garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.

Executive Power arms readers with effective, fast-acting techniques that show them, step-by-step, how to get what they need before they and their companies pay a heavy toll for lack of it. This book contains specific, carefully formulated psychological tactics that can be applied to any business situation, with any person. This book offers readers the opportunity to use the most important psychological tools governing human behavior, not just to level the playing field, but to create an automatic advantage in today's business world. The book will arm the reader with the tactics to: * Get back any customer you've lost. * Find out who in your company is loyal to you and who is not. * Get any group of people to get along and work as a team. * Turn a lazy worker into an ambitious go-getter. * Fire anyone easily, without an argument or even a difficult conversation. * Dilute the impact of negative publicity quickly. * Collect money owed, no matter how long it's been overdue. * Inspire your client, colleague, or boss to go along with your idea or plan. * Manage the unmanageable-get any employee to fall in line with the company line.

Completely revised, this new edition presents a well-balanced set of economic development financing tools and techniques focused on our current times of economic austerity. While traditional public sector techniques are evaluated and refocused, this volume emphasizes the role of the private sector and the increasing need for cobbling together different techniques and sources to create a workable financial development package. The chapters address critical assessments of various methods as well as practical advice on how to implement these various techniques. New chapters on entrepreneurship, the changing nature of the community banking system, and the increasing need for partnerships provides critical insights into the ever-evolving practice of economic development finance.

Key features:--Provides a comprehensive view of financing methods: public, private, and a combination of both sectors.--Includes an up-to-date evaluation of traditional and new financing techniques, and the limitations and opportunities of each.--Addresses current economic issues, including a chapter on banking reform.--Includes completely revised sections on private and entrepreneurial finance as well as public finance.

There are few industries, if any untouched by global competitive forces. Firms and countries long accustomed to dominance in their respective international markets must now reckon with aggressive and innovative competitors from all corners of the world. As the cross-border flow of people, knowledge, ideas, products, services and management practices accelerates, the notion of home-based advantage is becoming weaker. Unlike their domestic counterparts, firms competing across borders must deal with differences in political, legal, financial, cultural, governance and macroeconomic contexts. These contextual differences shape competition in international strategy and make the study of international strategy more than just a simple extension of classic strategic analysis. Global Strategy deals with the question of how firms can compete in a global environment. Andrew Inkpen and Kannan Ramaswamy examine the issues considered central to the study of strategic management in a global context, such as the nature of global advantage, strategic alliances, competing in emerging markets, international corporate governance, global knowledge management and ethical issues in international business. Much as been written about the relevance of global, regional and domestic strategies to counter competition from overseas and as a means to enter foreign markets. However, lobal Strategy takes a broader view, organizing itself around a set of strategic management issues that arise specifically because a firm is international. While there is obviously some overlap between domestic strategic management and global strategic management, it is Inkpen and Ramaswamy's contention that the differences between domestic and global strategy warrant specific attention. By integrating academic research with practical examples and case studies, they inform students and managers of global business about a diverse set of important strategic issues.

Even after years of receiving considerable foreign aid, Haiti remains an impoverished, tremendously fragile state. Over a span of ten years, the United States spent over $4 billion in aid to Haiti, yet the average Haitian still has to survive on one dollar a day. Why has assistance been so ineffectual, and what can we learn from Haiti's plight about foreign aid in general? Haiti in the Balance tackles those questions by analyzing nearly twenty years of Haitian history, politics, and foreign relations. Terry Buss and his colleagues at the National Academy on Public Administration found a general failure to reinforce the capacity of institutions at all levels of Haitian government. Building up that system of institutions appears to be a necessary precursor to a nation using foreign aid in the most effective manner. Such an effort demands improved security, a more professional (and less corrupt) bureaucracy, and eventually decentralization and perhaps even some privatization. Different levels of government must be willing to learn how best to work with one another: according to Buss, "Haitian governments seemed consumed by politics, rather than good governance." People still matter, and so does administration. Until we learn that lesson, even the most generous foreign aid will not fulfill its intent.

Why do so many global strategies fail—despite companies’ powerful brands and other border-crossing advantages? Seduced by market size, the illusion of a borderless, “flat” world, and the allure of similarities, firms launch one-size-fits-all strategies.

But cross-border differences are larger than we often assume, explains Pankaj Ghemawat in Redefining Global Strategy. Most economic activity—including direct investment, tourism, and communication—happens locally, not internationally.

In-depth examples reveal how companies such as Cemex, Toyota, Procter & Gamble, Tata Consultancy Services, IBM, and GE Healthcare have adroitly managed cross-border differences—as well as how other well-known companies have failed at this challenge.

Crucial for any business competing across borders, this book will transform the way you approach global strategy.

The new model for business success: replace top-down Alpha management with collaboration, connection, and increased job satisfaction—the Beta model

The Fall of the Alphas explores the sweeping changes taking place in the corporate and social cultures of today's most successful organizations. Utilizing years of advising companies of all sizes, hypergrowth startups to Fortune 500 company management teams, Dana Ardi identifies a pivotal evolutionary moment: the decline of the traditional Alpha-model (the top-down, male-dominated, authoritarian, corner-office hierarchy that has ruled organizational landscapes for so long), as it is replaced by collaboration, connectivity, and the sharing of power. As Ardi persuasively demonstrates, in the new Beta organization, it is the team players, the sage advisors, the network experts, the trusted assistants, and the communications facilitators who are coming to the fore, as savvy managers learn to lead through influence and collaboration rather than authority and competition. From technology behemoths to small and medium-sized businesses, Beta has become the new paradigm for success in today's challenging market.

With insight and practical guidance, Dana Ardi shows how any business organization or team can re-organize from Alpha to Beta—and be more effective, flexible, and profitable

Africa has long attracted China. We can date their first certain involvement from the fourteenth century, but East African city-states may have been trading with southern China even earlier. In the mid-twentieth century, Maoist China funded and educated sub-Saharan African anticolonial liberation movements and leaders, and the PRC then assisted new sub-Saharan nations. Africa and China are now immersed in their third and most transformative era of heavy engagement, one that promises to do more for economic growth and poverty alleviation than anything attempted by Western colonialism or international aid programs. Robert Rotberg and his Chinese, African, and other colleagues discuss this important trend and specify its likely implications.

Among the specific topics tackled here are China's interest in African oil; military and security relations; the influx and goals of Chinese aid to sub-Saharan Africa; human rights issues; and China's overall strategy in the region. China's insatiable demand for energy and raw materials responds to sub-Saharan Africa's relatively abundant supplies of unprocessed metals, diamonds, and gold, while offering a growing market for Africa's agriculture and light manufactures. As this book illustrates, this evolving symbiosis could be the making of Africa, the poorest and most troubled continent, while it further powers China's expansive economic machine.

Is your “big idea” worth pursuing? What if you could test your business model earlier in the process—before you’ve expended valuable time and resources?

You’ve talked to customers. You’ve identified problems that need solving, and maybe even built a minimum viable product. But now there’s a second bridge to cross. How do you tell whether your idea represents a viable business? Do you really have to go through the whole cycle of development, failure, iteration, tweak, repeat?

Scaling Lean offers an invaluable blueprint for mod­eling startup success. You’ll learn the essential metrics that measure the output of a working business model, give you the pulse of your company, communicate its health to investors, and enable you to make precise interventions when things go wrong. You’ll also learn how to:

· ballpark the viability of a business model using a simple five-minute back-of-the-envelope estimation. · stop using current revenue as a measure of progress (it forces you to fly blind and, often, to overpromise to your shareholders) and instead embrace the met­ric of traction—which helps you identify the leading indicators for future business model growth. · set progressive goals that set you up for exponen­tial long-term success by implementing a staged 10X rollout strategy, like one employed by Face­book and Tesla. · stop burying your breakthrough insights in failed experiments, but rather illuminate them using two-week LEAN sprints to quickly source, rank, and test ideas.

Ash Maurya, a serial entrepreneur and author of the startup cult classic Running Lean, pairs real-world examples of startups like Airbnb and Hubspot with techniques from the manufacturing world in this tacti­cal handbook for scaling with maximum efficiency and efficacy. This is vital reading for any startup founder graduating from the incubator stage.

This book describes the state-of-the-art of software ecosystems. It constitutes a fundamental step towards an empirically based, nuanced understanding of the implications for management, governance, and control of software ecosystems. This is the first bo

For most businesses, success is fleeting. There are only two real choices: stick with the status quo until things inevitably decline, or continuously change to stay vital. But how?

Bestselling leadership and management guru Jason Jennings and his researchers screened 22,000 com­panies around the world that had been cited as great examples of reinvention. They selected the best, verified their success, interviewed their leaders, and learned how they pursue never-ending radical change.

The fresh insights they discovered became Jennings's "reinvention rules" for any business. The featured companies include: Starbucks-which turned itself around by mak­ing tons of small bets on new ideas. Fresher store designs, better food products, and free Wi-Fi were a few of the results. Apollo Tyres-which launched the Apollo Academy to train everyone and reinvented how it finds, keeps, and grows people. It went from five hundred million to two billion in annual sales in only a few years. Arrow Electronics-which found success by solving problems that drove its customers crazy and has become a twenty-billion-dollar electronics giant by shifting its focus from selling commodities to custom tailoring solutions. Smithfield Foods-which faced a PR crisis over the way it slaughtered animals and polluted the environment and transformed itself by hiring an environmental activist and empowering him to transform the company's ethos.

If you're ready to toss same old, same old out the door, The Reinventors will become your road map to successfully pursuing continuous change. It will help your company stay relevant for years to come.

Finding new people to do business with has been, and always will be, the single most important aspect of the sales game. This guidebook provides you with proven strategies to continually develop new business. With these tips, you can learn to walk into a room full of people you’ve never bet before and walk out with several qualifi ed leads. Longtime sales consultant Rick Hill explains how to • develop leads regardless of what you are selling; • close sales with one short question; • identify who to talk with and who to avoid; • avoid rookie mistakes that cost you business.

By using these tools, you can sell insurance, real estate, advertising space, and any number of other products with confi dence. You can also become a better public speaker and discover new ways to use the Internet to increase sales.

Praise for Fishing for Leads

“When Rick tells you how to build a speech, believe him. I’ve been copying him for years!”

—Mark Hansen, author of Success 101 for Teens, Dollars and Sense for Winning Financial Life

“Rick’s been a legend in the direct selling world for over thirty years. He’s done what he’s teaching.”

Apple embraced co-creation to enhance the speed and scope of its innovation, generat­ing over $1 billion for its App-Store partner-developers in two years, even as it overtook Microsoft in market value. Starbucks launched its online platform MyStarbucksIdea.com to tap into ideas from customers and turbocharged a turnaround. Unilever turned to co-creation for redesigning prod­uct lines such as Sunsilk shampoo and revitalized growth. Nike achieved remarkable success with its Nike+ co-creation initiative, which enables a com­munity of over a million runners to interact with one another and the company, increasing its market share by 10 percent in the first year.

Co-creation involves redefining the way organizations engage individuals—customers, employees, suppliers, partners, and other stake­holders—bringing them into the process of value creation and engaging them in enriched experi­ences, in order to

—formulate new breakthrough strategies

—design compelling new products and services

—transform management processes

—lower risks and costs

—increase market share, loyalty, and returns

In this pathbreaking book, Venkat Ramaswamy (who coined the term co-creation with C. K. Prahalad) and Francis Gouillart, pioneers in working with com­panies to develop co-creation practices, show how every organization—from large corporation to small firm, and government agency to not-for-profit—can achieve “win more–win more” results with these methods. Based on extraordinary research and the authors’ hands-on experiences with successful projects in co-creation at dozens of the world’s most exciting organizations, The Power of Co-Creation illustrates with detailed examples from leading firms such as those above, as well as from Cisco, GlaxoSmithKline, Ama­zon, Jabil, Predica, Wacoal, Caja Navarra, and many others, how enterprises have used a wide range of “engagement platforms”—and how they have even restructured internal management processes—in order to harness the power of co-creation.

As the authors’ wealth of examples make vividly clear, enterprises can no longer afford to view custom­ers and other stakeholders as passive recipients of their products and services but must learn to engage them in defining and delivering enhanced value. Co-creation goes beyond the conventional “process view” of qual­ity, re-engineering, and lean thinking, and is the essential new mind-set and practice for boosting sus­tainable growth, productivity, and profits in the future.

Ready to implement better, faster, cheaper, more-profitable processes in your organization? Lean Six Sigma Demystified, Second Edition, shows you how to use proven techniques for simplifying, streamlining, and optimizing business practices for maximum productivity and profitability.

Written in a step-by-step format, this practical guide covers the fundamental methods and tools of Lean Six Sigma. You'll get details on reducing defects and deviation, sustaining improvements, and achieving laser-focused process innovations. Measurement systems analysis (MSA), Design for Lean Six Sigma, and statistical tools such as analysis of variance (ANOVA) are also discussed. Clear examples, helpful diagrams, and concise explanations make it easy to understand the material, and end-of-chapter quizzes and a final exam reinforce key concepts.

It's a no-brainer! You'll learn about:

The seven speed bumps of Lean Value stream mapping and spaghetti diagramming Control charts, Pareto charts, and Ishikawa diagrams to laser-focus improvements Excel power tools for Lean Six Sigma Lean Six Sigma tar pits Ways to implement Lean Six Sigma to maximize results and minimize costs

Simple enough for a beginner, but challenging enough for an advanced student, Lean Six Sigma Demystified, Second Edition, is your shortcut to this powerful improvement methodology. You'll also get a 90-day free trial of Q1 Macros software for Lean Six Sigma.

A celebrated coach reveals the secrets to building a fierce competitor

At age 26, Joanne P. McCallie, a.k.a. Coach P, began her career at Maine, where in the span of eight years, she elevated the women's basketball program to a very competitive team that outdrew the men's crowds, a rarity in college sports. Over her tenure, she created the Choice Not Chance (CNC) philosophy, training kids how to think and focus on making the correct choices in life. She imparted her passionate philosophy to all of her players and now brings it to her efforts as head coach at Duke. Choice Not Chancehighlights McCallie's lessons for building a fierce competitor, such as "Going against the grain," "Never become satisfied," and "Enjoy the prospect of getting better daily."

The CNC philosophy is widely used by McCallie, her staff, and players, who are very active in the community speaking about "CNC."

Joanne P. McCallie is head coach of the Duke Women's Basketball team and was the ACC Coach of the Year in 2010 McCallie became the first coach in Division I history to be crowned champion in four different conferences, as well as the first coach in NCAA history to garner coach of the year accolades in four different leagues A native of Brunswick, Maine, McCallie owns a career mark of 431-174 and is entering her 20th year as a head coach at Maine, Michigan State and Duke; as a coach and player, she has led her teams to 15 conference titles, 19 NCAA Tournament appearances, seven NCAA Sweet 16 appearances, five NCAA Elite Eight appearances, three NCAA Final Four appearances and three NCAA Championship game appearances During the 2004-05 season at Michigan State, she won the Big Ten Regular Season and Tournament Championship en route to a National Championship game appearance. For her efforts she was named the Associated Press National Coach of the Year

McCallie has taught her teams to play with passion and fight hard for recognition, and her teams have achieved remarkable success. Apply her wisdom to your teams, your employees, and your own life.

Buying and Selling a Business reveals key strategies used to sell and acquire business investments. Garrett Sutton, Esq. is a best selling author of numerous law for the layman books, and he guides the reader clearly through all of the obstacles to be faced before completing a winning transaction.

“Buying and Selling a Business” uses real life stories to illustrate how to prepare your business for sale, analyze acquisition candidates and assemble the right team of experts. The book also clearly identifies how to understand the tax issues of a business sale, how to use confidentiality agreements to your benefit and how to negotiate your way to a positive result.

Robert Kiyosaki, the best selling author of Rich Dad/Poor Dad has this to say about Buying and Selling a Business, “Garrett Sutton’s information is priceless for anyone who wants to increase his or her knowledge of the often secret world of the rich, what the rich invest in, and some of the reasons why the rich get richer.”

Buying and Selling a Business is a timely business book for our times.

Organization Development: The Process of Leading Organizational Change, Fourth Edition offers a comprehensive look at individual, team, and organizational change, covering classic and contemporary organization development techniques. Today's practitioners seek a solid foundation that is academically rigorous, but also relevant, timely, practical, and grounded in OD values and ethics. In this bestselling text, author Donald L. Anderson provides students with the organization development tools they need to succeed in today’s challenging environment of increased globalization, rapidly changing technologies, economic pressures, and evolving workforce expectations.

Each year Americans start one million new businesses, nearly 80 percent of which fail within the first five years. Under such pressure to stay alive—let alone grow—it’s easy for entrepreneurs to get caught up in a never-ending cycle of “sell it—do it, sell it—do it” that leaves them exhausted, frustrated, and unable to get ahead no matter how hard they try.

This is the exact situation Mike Michalowicz found himself in when he was trying to grow his first company. Although it was making steady money, there was never very much left over and he was chasing customers left and right, putting in twenty-eight-hour days, eight days a week. The punishing grind never let up. His company was alive but stunted, and he was barely breathing. That’s when he discovered an unlikely source of inspiration—pumpkin farmers.

After reading an article about a local farmer who had dedicated his life to growing giant pump­kins, Michalowicz realized the same process could apply to growing a business. He tested the Pumpkin Plan on his own company and transformed it into a remarkable, multimillion-dollar industry leader. First he did it for himself. Then for others. And now you. So what is the Pumpkin Plan?

Plant the right seeds: Don’t waste time doing a bunch of different things just to please your customers. Instead, identify the thing you do better than anyone else and focus all of your attention, money, and time on figuring out how to grow your company doing it. Weed out the losers: In a pumpkin patch small, rotten pumpkins stunt the growth of the robust, healthy ones. The same is true of customers. Figure out which customers add the most value and provide the best opportunities for sustained growth. Then ditch the worst of the worst. Nurture the winners: Once you figure out who your best customers are, blow their minds with care. Discover their unfulfilled needs, innovate to make their wishes come true, and overdeliver on every single promise.

Full of stories of other successful entrepreneurs, The Pumpkin Plan guides you through unconven­tional strategies to help you build a truly profitable blue-ribbon company that is the best in its field.

Organizations are facing an engagement crisis. Regardless if they are customers, employees, patients, students, citizens, stakeholders, organizations struggle to meaningfully engage their key constituent groups who have a precious and limited resource: their time. Not surprisingly, these stakeholders have developed deflector shields to protect themselves. Only a privileged few organizations are allowed to penetrate the shield, and even less will meaningfully engage. To penetrate the shield, and engage the audience, organizations need an edge.

Gamification has emerged as a way to gain that edge and organizations are beginning to see it as a key tool in their digital engagement strategy. Gamify shows gamification in action: as a powerful approach to engaging and motivating people to achieving their goals, while at the same time achieving organizational objectives. It can be used to motivate people to change behaviors, develop skills, and drive innovation. The key to gamification success is to engage people on an emotional level and motivating them to achieve their goals.

Millions of Americans every year have troubles with their finances. They turn to experts in droves, asking for help in filing their taxes, consolidating their debt, or just planning how they will pay their bills and invest their retirement funds.

This book was written for anyone who has ever wanted to dip his or her foot into financial planning but did not know where to start. You will learn the fundamental basics of financial planning, starting with the very process that most planners use to organize their own finances. You will learn how to organize financial statements and to create plans and how to properly manage taxes to great effect. You will learn how to manage basic assets such as cash, savings, home equity, and auto- mobiles. You will learn how to effectively manage credit and how to deal with insurance including life insurance, health insurance, and property insurance.

Whether you will be operating out of your home or you are looking to buy or rent office space, this book can help you with a wealth of startup information, from how to form and name your business to deciding if this will be a joint venture or if you would rather work solo. You will learn how to build your business by using low- and no-cost ways to satisfy customers, and also ways to increase sales, have customers refer others to you, and thousands of excellent tips and useful guidelines.

This complete manual will arm you with everything you need, including sample business forms; contracts; worksheets and checklists for planning, opening, and running day-to-day operations; lists; plans and layouts; and dozens of other valuable, timesaving tools of the trade that no business owner should be without. For all prospective financial planners, this guide will give you a complete walkthrough and timeline of what you need to accomplish to be effective. The companion CD-ROM is included with the print version of this book; however is not available for download with the electronic version. It may be obtained separately by contacting Atlantic Publishing Group at sales@atlantic-pub.com

Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company presidentâe(tm)s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.

A business plan precisely defines your business, identifies your goals, and serves as your firm's resumé. The importance of a comprehensive, thoughtful business plan cannot be overemphasized. Much hinges on it: outside funding; credit from suppliers; management of your operation and finances; promotion and marketing of your business; achievement of your goals and objectives, yet many small businesses never take the time to prepare one. Now it's easy--and you can do it in less than an hour.This new book and companion CD-ROM will demonstrate how to construct a current and pro-forma balance sheet, an income statement and a cash flow analysis. You will learn to allocate resources properly, handle unforeseen complications, and make good business decisions. The CD-ROM file (written in Microsoft Word) allows you to simply plug in your own information while providing specific and organized information about your company and how you will repay borrowed money; additionally, it informs sales personnel, suppliers and others about your operations and goals. The Companion CD-ROM contains the following: 1. Cover Sheet 2. Statement of Purpose 3. Table of Contents I. The Business A. Description of business B. Marketing C. Competition D. Operating procedures E. Personnel F. Business insurance II. Financial Data A. Loan applications B. Capital equipment and supply list C. Balance sheet D. Break-even analysis E. Pro-forma income projections (profit and loss statements) a. Three-year summary b. Detail by month, first year c. Detail by quarters, second and third years d. Assumptions upon which projections were based F. Pro-forma cash flow III. Supporting Documents A. Tax returns of principals for last three years B. Personal financial statement C. For franchised businesses, a copy of franchise contract and all supporting documents provided by the franchisor D. Copy of proposed lease or purchase agreement for building space E. Copy of licenses and other legal documents F. Copy of resumés of all principals G. Copies of letters of intent from suppliers

It’s the ultimate business question of our time: How do real companies make money when customers expect (and often get) products for free?

There are millions of potential customers in the world. Most of them won’t pay anything for your product. But some will pay almost anything. The

challenge is to find the latter without wasting time and money on the former.

In The Curve, Nicholas Lovell weaves together stories from disparate industries to show how smart companies are solving this puzzle. From video games to pop music to model trains, the Internet helps businesses forge direct relationships with a vast global audience by building communities and offering bespoke products and experiences.

In many cases, businesses can win by sharing their product (or a version of their product) for free, allowing it to spread as widely as possible. Eventually, a huge number of freeloaders spread the word to the superfans who value that product the most. And a small number of superfans will love a product so much that they will spend substantial sums of money on it—given the chance. These high-value customers are enough to fuel a profitable business. For example:

Nine Inch Nails front man Trent Reznor gave away his album for free to find the 2,500 hardcore fans who wanted the $300 limited ultradeluxe edition.Bigpoint, an independent game developer, released three adventure games to 130 million users—and made 80 percent of its $80 million revenue from just 23,000 users, who spent money to upgrade their game-playing arsenal.King Arthur Flour shares useful recipes and tips on its Web site, enchanting a cult of devoted bakers, many of whom happily travel to its Vermont headquarters for expensive specialty baking classes.

This approach doesn’t apply just to digital products anymore. With the advent of 3D printing, customization of physical goods is easier and cheap, and companies can truly tailor their offerings to their customers. A doll company can personalize everything from hair color to eye shape, and automakers

and technicians can create laser-scanned replacement parts for classic cars. Although the potential for piracy will spread to industries that believed they were immune to such disruption, businesses have an opportunity to make money in this new paradigm by offering variety, complexity, and flexibility at little to no extra cost.

What Lovell calls the Curve is a ranking of your company’s potential customers from those most likely to least likely to pay for your product or service. It charts their interest against the amount they are prepared to spend—be it nothing at all or thousands of dollars. The curve itself separates your revenue

opportunity (willing big spenders, your superfans) on the left from your marketing opportunity (freeloaders, whose only acceptable price point is $0) on the right. The area under the curve is the total amount of money you might be able to get from your customers or fans.

Lovell offers a strategy to draw more people into your orbit than was possible when physical costs limited your ability to expand. The Curve heralds a new era of creativity and business freedom.

The first book by a westerner who built a company in China from scratch

The emergence of China as a world economic power is one of the biggest stories of our time. Every business that intends to be an important part of the fast-changing global economy needs to know how to play the game in China. Who better to be your guide than Jack Perkowski, the pioneer who went to China in the early 1990s. Equipped with just a concept, he built a company step-by-step from the ground up–ASIMCO Technologies–that became a major player in China’s fast-growing automotive business.

Perkowski’s story is as rich, involving, and improbable as those of nineteenth-century titans such as Rockefeller and Carnegie or of twentieth-century ones like Michael Dell and Bill Gates, but with one obvious difference: They and others built their companies when America was emerging or dominant. Perkowski built his at the dawn of the Chinese century.

Perkowski’s insights about the challenges and potential of western involvement in today’s great Chinese expansion–gained on the ground in China itself over the past fifteen years–are of inestimable value and relevance to us all. For instance:

• The good news about China: Everything is possible. The bad news: Nothing is easy.• To build a business in China, you must develop a local management team–avoiding both former bureaucrats of the state-run enterprises and the country’s new breed of wildcat entrepreneurs.• You must learn the real reason why China is able to produce goods so cheaply.• Forget your notions about the Chinese economy being rigidly controlled by Beijing–it is, in fact, highly decentralized and locally driven. As the Chinese say, “The mountains are high and the emperor is far away.”

Perkowski tells his story with clarity, lots of humor, and a gripping sense of adventure. He takes us along on his own version of the Long March, when he visited two factories a day for nine months, hitting every province, going through endless rounds of dinners and the inevitable drinking games, and eating what seemed like every part of every animal. He vividly describes what it’s like to be a westerner living and working in China and the dramatic transformation he’s seen in the country, from a place left behind by the modern world to a place where a new world is being born.

Filled with hard-nosed lessons for anyone with ambitions of breaking into the Chinese market, and a rich source of practical wisdom about the realities of China today, Managing the Dragon answers the questions people ask Perkowski most often about his unique experience, as well as those they never think of asking–but should.

Capital in the Twenty-First Century by Thomas Piketty | Summary & Analysis

Preview:

Thomas Piketty’s Capital in the Twenty-First Century is a study of inequity, both historically and in the present. The book describes how the concentration of wealth has changed over time. Its central thesis is that return on capital is greater than growth over time, which means that capital and inequality inevitably increase. The book also considers the ways governments might address the increasing concentration of wealth in the future.

Many economists have argued that increasing worker productivity in the modern era will inevitably result in reduced inequality. The historical record suggests that this is untrue. For most of history, there has been a huge gap between the rich and poor with no real middle class.

That changed in developed countries during the twentieth century for a number of reasons. First, two world wars caused massive shocks to the status quo and resulted in severe losses to many holders of capital…

PLEASE NOTE: This is key takeaways and analysis of the book and NOT the original book.

Inside this Instaread Summary of Capital in the Twenty-First Century:

· Overview of the Book

· Important People

· Key Takeaways

· Analysis of Key Takeaways

About the Author

With Instaread, you can get the key takeaways, summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, identify the key takeaways and analyze them for your convenience.

The must-read summary of Sam Walton and Richard Huey's book: "Sam Walton: Made in America: The Story of America's Richest Man".

This complete summary of the ideas from Sam Walton and Richard Huey's book "Sam Walton: Made in America" tells the story of Walton and how he rose to becoming so financially successful. In their book, the authors reveal the tale of a small-town millionaire who revolutionised retail distribution, with Wal-Mart becoming the world's largest retail chain by sales turnover and constantly expanding. This was made possible thanks not only to Walton’s dedication to entrepreneurship, hard work, vision, dedication, but also because he wasn’t afraid of risk. This summary offers a fascinating insight into the man behind one of the greatest success stories in American history.

Ladies Who Launch is the first company to define the feminine approach to launching a business and to make the connection between starting a business and bringing creativity into your life with self-esteem and happiness. The nationally acclaimed Ladies Who Launch program has enabled thousands of women across the country to break out of 9-5 and thrive in entrepreneurial enterprises that reflect their true passions, skills, and desires. Located in more than 40 cities in the United States, the Ladies Who Launch incubators - workshops that give women the support and encouragement they need to embark on making their dreams reality - have inspired women to start businesses, grow existing companies, and tap into their creativity to develop essential services and products and enjoy the lifestyle of their dreams while doing it.

Available for the first time in book form, the 4-step incubator process, using self-tests, inspiring stories, and practical information, gives women the courage to dare to follow a cherished but unfulfilled dream. Through this unique program women are encouraged toImagine it - allow a secret desire to come to lightSpeak it - choose a dream to pursueDo it - take effective action to make it realityCelebrate it - revel in successes, reward effort, and be good to yourself along the way

Ladies Who Launch provides a proven approach to igniting a fire under a long-smoldering dream, have more fun, and catapult a lifestyle, relationship or occupation to an infinitely higher level.

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